Metropolitan Museum of Art Western Han Dynasty Covered Jar with painted decoration 大都会博物馆西汉彩绘陶壶

            1992.165.20a, b 2nd–1st century BCE Earthenware with painted decoration H. 18 in. (45.7 cm); Diam. 11 in. 27.9 cm); Diam. of rim 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm); Diam. of foot 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm)

This mortuary vessel is decorated with the animated drama of a blue beast with bared fangs lunging at a mounted archer. Roaming the other side of the hu is a long striding tiger. Executed with brilliant pigments and confident black brushstrokes, the decoration perfectly expresses the boldly assertive character of the Western Han dynasty and is, moreover, one of the finest known examples of Han painting. The iconography is celestial: the blue beast represents the star Sirius, known in China as the Heavenly Wolf, and the archer is a personification of the adjoining constellation, Bow, whose arrow always points directly at the Wolf. Their companion on the other side is the White Tiger, cosmological symbol of the West, whose domain in the nightly sky borders that of the Wolf and the Bow.

The Wolf is a baleful star. He governs thievery and looting and represents the Xiongnu tribes (Huns) who warred with the Han people on the northwestern borders of China. It is said that when the twinklings of the Wolf star change color, banditry will curse the land; when the star shifts from its normal position, the Xiongnu will be on the warpath. Fortunately, there is the vigilant Bow, who "punishes rebels and knows those who are crafty and evil." Forever pointed at the Wolf, across whose body is an array of ill-boding meteors, the Bow was considered the protector of China. The mounted archer, the eternal image of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe, is shown hunting the symbolic representation of the Xiongnu.

西汉彩绘陶壶表现了弓箭手和飞熊对峙的激烈场景。飞熊象征天狼星，在中国古代星象学说里，天狼星主侵略之兆，屈原在《九歌·东君》中有言：“举长矢兮射天狼”，以天狼指代楚国西北的秦国，而在这件西汉陶壶上的图案则是象征对来自北方入侵者匈奴的抗击。

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Taken on: December 30, 2024

Tags:

西汉

绘画

彩绘 more »

陶罐

天狼星

MetropolitanMuseumofArt

大都会博物馆

drawing

painting

Sirius

westernhan

pottery

1992.165.20a.b « less

Sets appears in: • Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) 大都会博物馆 2024

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